Apple accepts Javascript in EPUB ebooks in iBookstore

http://www.pigsgourdsandwikis.com/2011/06/javascript-accepted-in-ibookstore.html

by joshuacc • 15 years ago

38 30 15 years ago

Previously, in a kind of reverse thing, any booklike app that didn't have interactivity was refused as a normal app and had to go in the iBook store. But interactivity ie Javascript in iBooks did not seem to be allowed.

The ePub committee spent a lot of time trying to decide if ePub was just a browser and what an eBook was, but maybe Apple have decided.

Not sure they would accept an HTML5 game as an iBook though. A kids book with puzzles in might work though and still sell as a book not an app.

joshuacc• 15 years ago

This brings a lot of interesting possibilities to technical books. End-of-chapter review questions that are automatically graded being the most obvious.

d0m• 15 years ago

Or background/animated images in children' books. Or dynamic content adjusting to what you already know / had already read. I.e. I know what a prototype is, automatically, all the chapters/paragraphs explaining it could be hidden.

ipardo• 15 years ago

There are plenty of books with webkit animations already in the bookstore.

lucaswoj• 15 years ago

As a web developer who specializes in JavaScript, I'm really thrilled -- but as a person who reads books, I'm a little worried. What does the iTunes approval process for iBooks look like? Will any kind of HIG be enforced on the books? Do book publishers have good taste in interactivity? If I wanted interactivity, I would go to the internet.

rakkhi2• 15 years ago

Hm... interesting security implications depending on how the code executes, what external info/code it can call

rm-rf3• 15 years ago

So my ebooks can now contain executable root kits.

Cool.

tobylane2• 15 years ago

Javascript is pretty well jailed up, you can't communicate with local and remote files in the same javascript file.

Someone• 15 years ago

I agree. Logical follow-up questions would be:

- is this using the fast JavaScript JIT (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2666763)?

- what API is available to eBook JavaScript? Can one make Ajax calls? How much of the book's content can one replace? Make permanent changes to book content?

- Depending on e answers, what differences remain between eBook reader and web browser?

MatthewPhillips2• 15 years ago

I had no idea epub allowed js in the spec. My reactionary opinion on this is negative. Why do we need this? What reason is there to have js in epub when we already have js in html? What distinction will there be between html and epub if they are both just document formats that can also execute js?

tjogin• 15 years ago

So the good thing about ePub was that it was less capable than HTML, and now they've made ePub worse by making it better?

MatthewPhillips2• 15 years ago

Possibly, like I said it was my reactionary opinion. However being limited by design can be a good thing.

mofle• 15 years ago

JavaScript isn't in the current ePub 2.0 spec. Though it is suggested in the 3.0 draft. Like Apple extended ePub 2.0 with audio/video support, they seem to either support it or not prevent it.

smackfu• 15 years ago

Does the standard even really matter, since the content is wrapped in DRM anyways and can only be played in the eBooks app?

nivals2• 15 years ago

This is fantastic. I'm glad to see Apple doing what they do best... enabling content developers to be creative. Adobe has a long way to go.

BasDirks• 15 years ago

"Photoshop CS4 supports scripts written in AppleScript, JavaScript or VBScript. ..."

etc.. :)

What would you like to see from Adobe to change your mind?

evinfinite2• 15 years ago

Not rendering magazines as 500MB packs of PNGs would be a start.

kmfrk• 15 years ago

I was worried about the direction of iBooks and the growing interest in making app-based books instead of using the native iBooks store. This makes me more optimistic about the future of iBooks.

soapdog• 15 years ago

An Young Girl Illustrated Primer, or, Diamong Age here we go!

Apple accepts Javascript in EPUB ebooks in iBookstore

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